Legion air rifle top 16 to compete in finals
The American Legion’s Junior 3-Position Air Rifle National Championship finals Saturday morning will see the top eight precision and sporter high school marksmen competing for a championship title in their respective categories. Since Thursday morning, the 30 competitors from across the country have been shooting on the campus of Hillsdale College in Hillsdale, Mich., vying for a spot in the finals. They competed in two back-to-back matches Thursday and Friday, firing a total of 240 shots in three positions – prone, standing and kneeling.
The top 16 will fire 10 shots in the standing position for the finals at 9 a.m. Eastern time Saturday, July 20. Follow the results at this link.
Kamdyn McFarland of Billings, Mont., is heading into the finals in third position for precision. The 16-year-old high school junior who has been shooting since she was seven is looking forward to the standing position for finals because it’s her favorite to shoot in.
“I like standing the most because it came to me the easiest, and I have to practice the least to be good at it. It’s just so fun,” she said, adding that tomorrow will be her second finals to ever compete in. “I’m going to try to stay calm and not get messed up when everyone is screaming and cheering. With shooting, you have to think that after the shot’s down the range there’s nothing you can do about it. Think one shot at a time, don’t worry about your score or what other people are shooting. This one shot can make a match, or you can lose the match with one shot. So you have to focus. I’m hoping to at least shoot one 10.”
When Emme Walrath of Kenosha, Wis., stands on the firing line tomorrow in first position for precision, she’s going to remind herself “that I’m just proud and so honored that I can be here and whatever happens, happens. And live in the moment. I will also tell myself to have fun and to let things be what they are. And just let the process take over. I tell myself that beforehand, so I don’t have that stress buildup. You just keep on doing what muscle memory does.”
Walrath will be an incoming freshman at Georgia Southern University and on the NCAA Division I rifle team. She started air rifle shooting in 2019 and “got better in 2020 because of a lot of practice and my support system ... my mom and dad, and my coaches (Jon Speck and Lucas Kozeniesky, a 2020 Tokyo Olympic silver medalist). And a lot of the success also comes from the mental state. Because this sport doesn’t move as much, it’s much more of you doing your best to stay still. But while you’re staying still a lot of thoughts can go through your head, and it’s very hard to keep your mind completely blank and not thinking of anything. It’s always a challenge to keep on getting your mental state into that right place and pushing past those mental blocks that you set for yourself. So it’s always a constant battle with your own brain in this sport.”
It will be the second time for Elaine Saint of Walhalla, S.C., to compete in the Legion’s air rifle finals for sporter. She placed fourth in 2022. Now, she heads into the finals in second position.
Competing in the Legion’s Junior 3-Position Air Rifle National Championships two years ago “was one of the coolest experiences that I will always remember,” Saint said. “It opened my world up to the whole shooting sports network and that I could go to college for it.”
Air rifle never would have happened for Saint if she didn’t give it a second chance four years ago as a freshman in high school. She did not want to come back after her first air rifle practice on a then all-girls team. “It was new to me, and I was really shy. I got in the car at the end of practice, and I said, ‘Mom, I don’t think I can do this.’ She said, ‘Go back the next day and see how you feel.’ My coach was so kind, and he helped me get into that comfortable setting with shooting and the girls were very accepting.”
Saint did not think she would place as high as second position coming into the Legion’s competition because she did a practice match of the whole tournament beforehand and “I did not do very well. But my coach really strives to teach us how to be confident with ourselves. Rifle has so much mental training that it helps me be more confident with myself and it’s helped me with my anxiety because I took all the things I learned from camps, from my coach and I put it out in real life. Now instead of trying to reach my personal best in rifle, I’m trying to do that in my entire life. It really taught me to reach for the stars.”
Elyssa Vazquez of Cape Coral, Fla., is heading into the finals in eighth position for sporter with a goal “to do the best I can because previous competitions I’m always worried about the score or adding it up. I just really want to relax in this competition because this is my last shooting competition for the summer before the beginning of school (at Mariner High School). I just want to have a new start on a good ending.”
Elyssa is at the Legion air rifle championship competing alongside her sister Eryka and teammate Tyler Dennard. The three shoot for Mariner High School AJROTC and recently won the Civilian Marksmanship Program JROTC Nationals, breaking “an 11-year streak of the Army not winning,” Eryka said.
Eryka has graduated high school and is headed into the National Guard while Elyssa will be a junior. For Elyssa with air rifle, “there is a big mental aspect that I still struggle with, but I stick with the sport because it helps me as a person. And a quote I like says something along the lines that just because you won doesn’t mean it’s over. You’ll stay exactly where you are if you don’t put in the work you need to do to become the best person you can be.”
The top eight precision shooters for Saturday’s finals and their aggregate score:
1. 2,391 – Emme Walrath of Wisconsin, American Legion Post 295
2. 2,383 – Makenzie Larson of Colorado, American Legion Post 109
3. 2,381 – Kamdyn McFarland of Montana, Yellowstone Rifle Club
4. 2,377 – Hunter Jenkins of West Virginia, Mason Dixon Junior Rifle
5. 2,374 – Samuel Adkins of Pennsylvania, Palmyra Junior Rifle Team
6. 2,367 – Logan Michael of California, Lincoln Rifle Club
7. 2,364 – Ziva Swick of Pennsylvania, Palmyra Junior Rifle Team
8. 2,360 – Gabriella Sprague of Pennsylvania, DuBois Rifle & Pistol Club
The top eight sporter shooters for Saturday’s finals and their aggregate score:
1. 2,217.74– Alexandra Orr of Virginia, Lafayette Gun Club
2. 2,213.77 – Elaine Saint of South Carolina, Walhalla HS Rifle Team
3. 2,212.77 – Zachary Higgins of Tennessee, Daniel Boone MCJROTC
4. 2,194.75 – Clay Crawford of South Dakota, Marshall County Sharpshooters
5. 2,193.78 – Zoe Dissing of South Dakota, Humboldt Sharpshooters
6. 2,190.75 – Kaitlynn Burrell of South Carolina, Walhalla HS Rifle Team
7. 2,190.71 – Brooklyn Zeigler of Tennessee, Daniel Boone MCJROTC
8. 2,189.66 – Elyssa Vazquez of Florida, Mariner HS AJROTC